Syria: U.S. officially requests to accredit Damascus envoy

The United States has issued a formal request to accredit a new American ambassador to Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told reporters on Wednesday.

Robert Ford, the envoy to be, will be the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since the Bush administration called back its envoy as a response to the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February of 2005.

"The United States has nominated an ambassador. This is an American sovereign issue and it is Syria's right to study the nomination," Moualem told reporters in Damascus.

On Saturday, an official in the U.S. embassy in Damascus said that he felt Ford "will help change Syria's attitude in the region in order to ensure stability and security."

"Washington hopes that Syria will play an essential role in eliminating U.S. concerns regarding its attitude in the region," the U.S. official told the German Press Agency DPA.

Ford, who speaks Arabic fluently, served as the U.S. envoy to Algeria from 2006 to 2008, and is considered to be an expert in Mideast affairs.

Ford's name first came up as a candidate after the Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported on Saturday that the U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell named his country's new ambassador to Syria in a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier that week.